


May Day

by daughteroflilith



Series: Songs of Innocence and Experience [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Altar Sex, Cornwall, Exhibitionism, F/F, Fempreg, Folklore, Keep reading there is sex trust me, Lesbians Make Babies, Magic Sex and Joy, Mythology - Freeform, No man's island, Original Female Character/Original Female Character - Freeform, Paganism, Plot With Porn, Ritual Public Sex, Sex Magic, fertility magic, magic babies, may day, rite of spring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2020-09-01 21:38:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20264914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daughteroflilith/pseuds/daughteroflilith
Summary: When Liz's wife takes her to a small island off the coast of Cornwall and tells her that they can make a baby by having sex on the village altar, she's a bit dubious at first. Her wife convinces her otherwise.--A sequel story 'Into the Waves' has been added as a second chapter.--





	1. May Day

**Author's Note:**

> I am an American but I have always love old English folk traditions. When I was twenty-one and studying abroad in the UK, I went to a little English village and saw their May day festival, complete with Morris dancers. It stirred in me a fascination that has lasted to this day. 
> 
> A few years later I saw "The Wicker Man" and was intrigued by how the movie combined English folk traditions, horror, and cinema. I've always wanted to write a story that borrowed some of the basic elements of the Wicker Man but without the horror aspects.
> 
> This story is erotica and in no way shape or form properly represents anyone's actual traditions. I hope you like it.

I nearly lost my balance when I stood up on the small boat. My wife, Ash caught me and offered a strong hand to guide me onto the wooden dock. 

“This is really where you grew up?” I asked. She’d told me she was from a small English fishing village on an Island about about a half hour’s boat ride from the mainland but I could have never imagined anything so picturesque. A row of small sailing boats lined a long dock that led up to a cobble stone street and a series of beautiful old stone houses and a few pastures. Beyond the homes lay a forest so dense that I could easily imagine little red riding hood skipping off to meet her wolf there.

“Yeah,” She beamed at me, the sea air whipping her short dark hair into her eyes. “Come on, let’s get out of the wind so you can meet my grandma, she’ll love you.”

I had never met any of her family, aside from her mother, who had come to our wedding the year before. Apparently most of the residents of Redbud Island did not leave very often. Ash’s love of medieval history had driven her to the mainland and eventually all the way to University College London where I had met her while finishing my own PHD in folklore. 

As we began to work our way up the long winding path that would bring us to the houses, we passed a small group of children who appeared to be chasing one child who was rolling a hoop with a stick. They all had the same raven dark hair and pale skin as my wife. Unlike her, they wore their hair long and braided back in shepherdess crowns interwoven with ribbons.

Her family’s cottage should have been in a storybook. A low stone wall ringed a lush garden of herbs and flowers. There were even flower boxes in the windows. The doors and paintings were painted a charming sky blue and an equal armed celtic cross with runes carved into it hung over the threshold. 

She opened the door without knocking and called, “Mom, Nana, were here.”

Her mother hurried into the front room, wiping her hands on a stained white apron. Mary was as tall and slender as her daughter and moved with an easy grace. She wore her greying hair in a neat braid.

“Well met!” she declared and yanked Ash into a hug before kissing her on both cheeks. She repeated the gestures with me, adding a forehead kiss. I was a bit startled. I had only met the woman once before. I also came from a family that no one would describe as particularly affectionate. 

“I’m so happy you’re both here for May day.” Ash’s mother declared. 

“I know mom.”

“Now come and see your nana, she's excited to meet Liz.”

Ash hesitated. “You’ve talked to her right?” 

“Yes, she still thinks the marriage thing is a bit odd but she said that as long as you’re happy, she’s happy for you.”

Ash visibly relaxed. “If I ask for her blessing, will she give it.”

The lines at the edges of mother’s eyes deepened a bit. “Best not to sweetheart. You know how she feels about the old ways.”

Ash’s face fell.

Her mother hugged her. “She loves you so much honey, sometimes it is just hard for elders to understand how the world has changed.”

Ash had never said a word to me about her grandmother not accepting the wedding, although I had wondered when she said her grandmother couldn’t make the trip to the mainland. My own grandparents hadn’t exactly been able to handle the transatlantic flight at their age. They had sent their well wishes and a toaster. I still wasn’t sure where they’d gotten the idea we had needed a toaster. We had a pretty solid amount of household items between us and had put anything we didn’t have on a wedding registry. I’d booted our own old toaster, put my grandparents gift in its place, and written a proper thank you note, just like my mother taught me.

Ash’s mother led us down a short hallway to stunningly cozy kitchen. A warm fire crackled in the heart with an actual stew pot bubbling over it. Every available bit of space on the rafters was hung with dried herbs. The walls were lined with hand labeled ceramic jars. 

An old grey haired woman who could have truly been a witch in a fairytale, raised her head from her nap. Her hair had gone all silver and her face carried every mark of the long life she had lived. She was seated in a rocking chair beside the fire with a very fat calico cat in her lap. 

Her eyes were unclouded in spite of her age and the moment she saw her granddaughter her face lit up.

“Ash, come here child.”

Ash hurried to her side and hugged her. The old woman hugged back. “It is good to see you child. Now where is this love your mother says you have brought.”

Ash motioned me over and I came.

“Give me your hand and let me look at your face dear,” she said. 

I had to half kneel to put my face at her level, but I did. She felt my palm with her calloused thumb and studied my face. She brought her other hand up to turn my chin one way and then the other. In spite of her age her hand was steady and her grip firm.

“Who are your people?”

“My family name is Walker.” 

“That tells me nothing of your mother’s people, only your sire’s.”

I felt a bit overwhelmed but I managed, “My mother’s last name was Brown.”

She shook her wizened head. “Names mean little enough child. When did your mother’s people leave Ireland for the new world?”

I did not have a ready answer for that. “I don’t know, a bit before the revolutionary war I suppose.”

The old woman chuckled. “You’ve selkie blood in you, there is no mistaking those eyes.” She leaned forward a bit. “Tell me child, is the blood strong enough for you to don a second skin or are you trapped in a human form?”

I genuinely had no idea how to answer that. There were stories in my family but they were just that, stories. Sometimes when I stepped into the waves my skin itched but I had never known what that meant.

“Nana,” said Ash gently. “Don’t overwhelm her.”

“I’m not telling the girl anything she doesn’t know in her bones,” she said. Then, to my intense embarrassment she thumped the hand she’d had on my face against my upper breast bone. “You’ve a healthy heart. It won’t be what gets you in the end.” With the same complete and utter disregard for my personal space, she put the same hand against my shirt clad stomach. “Fertile too. You’ll carry well, even if you’ll puke up your guts for the first half of it.”

I really could have died in that moment. 

“Nana!” protested Ash and she nudged me back. “You can’t just say that kind of thing.” She told my grandmother.

Her grandmother was untroubled. “It’s true.”

Ash’s mother chose that moment to announce that the tea was ready. We all went to the kitchen table, save her grandmother, who showed no inclination to leave her chair by the fire. 

I was expecting a mug of strong black tea, as most of the UK tended to serve, so the oddly herbal taste that met my lips when I raised my mug to my lips was unexpected. 

I was even more confused when I watched both Ash and her mother pour cream from a small pitcher and add honey to their tea. Ash passed both the little pitcher and the honey to me. 

I didn’t want to be rude but the idea of dairy in a bitter herbal tea nearly made me gag. I tried to be as diplomatic as possible as I forwent the two jars.

“What kind of tea is this?” I asked. 

“Raspberry leaf and nettles with a bit of peppermint for taste,” said Ash’s mom.

“And you put milk in it?” I asked a bit dubiously.

“No, it’s best as it is. I’m not drinking it. I’m well past any of that business.”

I was again baffled but Ash looked very upset. “Mom!”

She stirred her own tea. “You did say you two were going to try for a baby.”

“Yes but…” Ash looked caught between embarrassment and indignation.

I felt my entire face heat. She had told her mother something we had only recently decided between us. We hadn’t even begun to look for a clinic, much less choose a donor or make a first try.

Ash’s mother patted my hand. “Don’t look so worried dear. If my mother says you’re fertile, then you are. In her day she was the best midwife on the island. She knows her business.”

By the time we made it out of that house about an hour later, I was almost too dazed to do more than take deep breaths of the salty sea air. The summer sun was low on the horizon but it still burned brightly. I could hear gulls calling. 

Ash rubbed my shoulders. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright, they seem very sweet, nozy but sweet.”

“That’s my family,” she said with a laugh and offered me her arm. “So can I interest you in a walk?” 

We set off, passing more poetry worthy stone cottages on the main road. She also pointed out the old school house, the post office, which was really just a section of the general store, and the pub. She promised we’d stop at the pub on our way back. 

As we walked, we passed a fair share of women tending their gardens or sitting out to enjoy the sun. Many were older but I saw plenty closer to middle ages and some as young as Ash and me. I supposed the children had seen earlier had to come from somewhere. 

She led me on a path that wound up from the village to a cliff that rose apart of the forest. We were halfway up the windy cliff path when something occurred to me. “Where are all the men, are they out fishing or in the pub or something?”

She glanced back briefly and then returned her attention to the steep path. “There aren’t any.”

“Wait, what?”

We reached the top of the small cliff. The entire village and the green pastures to west lay stretched out before us. Beyond it was the restless sea and somewhere far off was the thin line of the mainland. 

“Grown men aren't allowed here and boys are never born on the island.”

I stared at her. She had never mentioned anything this bizarre to me before. I knew she was raised by her mother and grandmother but I hadn’t paid much mind to that. Now that I thought about it, she’d never mentioned a single male relative, aside from her father who I’d met in London. Her parents were divorced and her mother had taken her back to the island to raise on her own after the split. Ash had looked up her father when she went to university and they had reconnected.

Images for the _ Wickerman _ began to flicker through my mind. “Babe, please tell me you’re not from some creepy cult that practices infanticide against baby boys.”

She shook her head. “No, nothing like that.” She didn’t explain further. 

I crossed my arms. “Seriously babe, I’m feeling kind of creeped out. We’ve been married for over a year and you never once told me you grew up on an island of entirely women.” I guess that was the sort of thing a woman would either brag about or never breathe a word about. 

She nervously scratched at the back of her head. “I was worried you’d think it was weird.” 

“It is a bit.” I felt betrayed, we talked about everything. How had I known so little of where she grew up? 

She offered me her best smile. “I’m sorry darling. I always meant to tell you but I could never figure out how. My courage failed me and I figured it might be easier to just show you.”

I was less than pleased with her. Then again, she had such an earnest look on her beautiful face and a golden sunset was setting behind her. As I watched the shining orb of light crossed the final millimeter between sky and earth and flash of lights seemed to briefly fill the world. 

She took my hand, drawing me close and slipping her arm around my waist. “Please forgive me. I can’t bear it if you’re mad at me.”

“I’m not mad. I’m still not forgiving you until I’m completely sure no one here plans to sacrificing me or anything.”

“Never. Trust me, once you get to know Redbud Island, you’ll love it as much as I do.”

“I think I already do.” I kissed her as we stood on that cliff. We got a bit caught up in the kissing and wasted the last of the fading sunlight. Even with the flashlight app from our cell phones, I don’t think I could have found my way back down if she hadn’t known the path so well and guided me. 

We ate that night at the pub. It was a place worthy of _ The Hobbit _, all heavy wood beams, sturdy wooden tankards, and a surprisingly good fiddler who apparently normally played in the Dublin Orchestra.

More than a few women had come home to Redbud Island for the May Day festival, it was their biggest holiday of the year. Ash had always said she wasn’t religious but she burned candles on the solstices and equiquinox. She had sometimes referred to herself as a lapsed hedge witch. As a lapsed presbyterian myself, I’d found that funny. She’d never had any objection to exchanging presents at Christmas, the only holiday I still troubled with. 

The women who’d come back from the mainland were mostly young and all had jobs and careers. I met a doctor, an actress, a painter, a stock broker and a veterinarian. It seemed to me that the island had lost most of its younger generation to the cities, just like so many other rural communities. This place felt different though, somehow still vibrant in spite of the changing world beyond it.

Later when Ash and I were making our tipsy way back to her mother’s house I asked her about it. It was a warm evening and we were walking hand and hand with me leaning slightly against her.

“They’ll nearly all come back eventually. It’s just the way it is.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“When I was a girl, I couldn't wait to get away from this place and go explore the world. Everyone else my age felt the same way. The island is too small for a secondary school, so everyone had to go to a boarding school on the mainland for highschool. We were so excited to go and then so damn homesick that first year. I was so happy to go home for the holidays.

“The homesickness was too much for one of my best friends, came back as soon as had finished backpacking across Europe after graduation She said she’d seen everything she needed to. It was the same after university and then more and more each year after. It’s just something about the Island I guess, it just pulls you back. 

“Only those of us who really have a reason to stay on the mainland, like playing in an orchestra like Fiona, or dancing like Maggie, or studying history like me, have the will to tough it out. Even that doesn’t last. Tonight Fiona said she’s pregnant and she’s going to stay to have her baby. I don’t think she’s going to leave again. She’s already talking about setting up a recording studio in her grandmother’s old cottage.”

I’d never heard her so rambly. I guessed the booze and the safe familiarity of home had loosened her tongue. She tilted her head up to look at the stars above. I did the same and was amazed by just how many stars I could see. I didn’t know the constellations well but even I could recognize Ursa Major rising above us. The night air was filled with the sound of insects.

She leaned back against me,“Honestly, sometimes I wonder if my mom’s homesickness wasn’t partially why my parents broke up. I mean, I know my dad working all the time and never being around was the big reason, but still.”

“What do you mean?”

“Even as a little kid, I could see how much my mom missed the island. She talked about it all the time. Her mother never approved of her marrying, much less having a child on the mainland and that really broke her heart. They had a huge fight and didn’t speak for years, not even on the phone, not until my mother came back to the island with me when I was five. I remember the first time we stepped off the boat. My mother took a deep breath and her shoulders relaxed as if she’d shed some heavy burden.

“My grandmother was waiting on the dock for us. She and my mother just looked at each other for a long time and then finally my grandmother said. ‘Your back then?’ and my mother said ‘yes.’ that was all they ever said about it. We went to my grandmother’s house and that was where I stayed until I went back to the mainland for school.” 

“Do you miss it like your mother did?” I asked gently.

She paused slightly in her step, nearly causing me to overbalance. There were no streetlights and I could barely make out her features but her hand was tense in my own. 

“Yes.”

“Ash.”

She squeezed my hand. “But I always will and I’ve plenty to keep me on the mainland.”

I drew closer to her. “Like what?”

“Well, there’s my thesis, and my assistant professorship at the university… and of course there is you.”

It was a clumsy kiss but a true one. Ash had no concerns with snogging in her village square, although to be fair, it was dark. 

May Day dawned painfully early. I woke to the sound of accordions, drums, bells and what sounded like someone whacking wooden sticks together. Very shortly, Ash’s mom was banging on the guest bedroom door. 

“Up, up both of you. You’ll be late for the maypole.”

“The what?” I mumbled

“We’re up,” called Ash groggily. “We’ll be down in a minute.”

We went into the bathroom to shower with certain ambitions but I quickly discovered that the clawfoot tub and shower head were not designed for two people to shower in, much less get up to no good. 

When we came back out, I found clothes laid out on the bed. I was only mildly troubled.

“So the flowy white flower girl dress for you or me?” I teased her. 

She smirked at me and set about tugging on a pair of white pants and a white shirt and embroidered vest. All she needed was a silly hat and bells to look like a morris dancer.

The dress proved kind of tricky and she had to help me. 

“How do I even wear a bra under this thing?” I asked.

“Traditionally, you don’t.” She told me. “It’s worn with a sort of corset thing. Tug the dress on and I’ll lace the second part.”

The corset part was actually more like an embroidered cloth half vest. It was covered in flower designs and something that looked like runes. It laced in the front and back and did my boobs a lot of favors. 

“You ever wear one of these?” I laughed. 

“Nah, although there are totally photos of me running around in a frilly white dress at the mayday festival when I was little.”

“Awe, I bet you were adorable.”

“A bit less so when I somehow always managed to tear my clothes and come home covered in grass stains. It took hours of embroider to make the damn dresses so my mother was less than impressed, especially since it meant she couldn’t pass the dresses down to any of her cousins kid’s after I ruined them. She was more than happy to start embroidering shirts for me instead.”

“We are totally going to go through some old photo albums.”

We went down to breakfast. Her mother gave us rich oatmeal flavored with nuts and honey. She handed me a mug of tea and I was again disappointed to be met by the taste of raspberry leaves. I was a woman who needed her caffeine. I didn’t want to offend her, so I drank it without complaint. 

I was more than ready to head out and go explore the festival, but Ash's mother made me sit in a chair as she carefully braided about half my hair and set a colorful flower crown on my head. 

Ash’s hair was too short to braid but her mother plonked a crown on her head as well. Ash's mom simply braided her own hair and wove a few flowers in, instead of troubling with a flower crown of her own. She wore a simple white dress, and an embroidered red apron. It was covered in complex symbols. It also had two pockets that I rather envied, my dress had none.

“It’s traditional for midwives to wear red aprons for the festival,” she explained. 

Her grandmother seemed so frail I had not been entirely certain if she’d be able to come with us, but after accepting a bit of help getting onto her feet, the silver haired woman needed only her walking stick to begin making her slow but steady way out of the house. 

We set off into the festival. We had only made it to the front gate when I found myself met by a creature out of my worst nightmares. I screamed and jumped back at the sight of the horse's skull. It took me a moment to realize that the eyes were only beads and that the skull was actually on a stick that someone was carrying. It was draped in white cloth, almost like a veil and actually wore a flower crown of its own. 

In the street, a group of Morris Dancers, some in pants and some in dresses like my own, were busy turning and clanking sticks as bells jingled on their legs. That at least explained the sound I had heard earlier. The horse skull reared back and went to weave in and out of the dancers. 

To her credit, Ash didn’t laugh. Instead she squeezed my arm. “It’s alright love. It was only a Hobby Horse.”

“More like a Mari Lwyd or a Penglas,” I said. 

She kissed my cheek. “You would know darling.”

“My PHD has to be good for something,” I said. Now that I had calmed, I rather wanted to run back inside and get my camera to start taking some pictures and maybe jot down some notes. That seemed rude though, so I didn’t. This weekend was about getting to know Ash’s family and home. I wasn’t going to risk making a bad impression. 

We followed a winding stone path up to a huge meadow that lay above the village. There were already tables set out, waiting to be laid with food. Children ran about like wild things whooping and giggling, while adults began to gather. Most of the children wore white dresses or smocks with varying degrees of embroidery. Some women were dressed like me and some more simply. Most older women forwent the corset vest. Plenty had pants like Ash did. I guessed everyone got to choose what they wore as long as it was white and had the embroidery. 

I noticed that there were two maypoles erected in the field. One was small and off to the side and the other taller and nearer to the center, both had ribbons of every color trailing down. 

The morris dancers and the creepy horse head thing had followed us up the path.They had gained a series of odd instruments including another drum and some manner or pipe. There was also something I could have sworn was a medieval style clarinet. There was also a tambourine played by a woman who was a bit too enthusiastic about the whole business.

A grey haired woman, perhaps a bit older than Ash’s mother and wearing the most beautifully embroidered dress I had ever seen, stepped out into the center of the clearing and had to clap her hands only once for silence to fall. She made a hand motion towards the smaller maypole. Several of the adults began herding the children in that general direction. It took considerable poking prodding and whispering to get each little girl to take up a ribbon. There were about twenty children in all, the smallest was probably around five and the biggest maybe fourteen. 

At another signal, the music picked up and the children began to dance around the pole, raising and dropping their arms according one woman’s attempts to call out what to do. I probably could have brought my camera to the festival because most of the moms and grandmothers had phones and cameras out and were photographing their offspring eagerly.

“Watch closely,” whispered Ash in my ear. “When the children’s maypole is done we’re up next when they do the one for maidens.”

I turned and gave her an odd look, “babe we are married. I don’t think we count as maidens.”

Her mother overhead us. “On the island, any woman who has never born a child but is still of childbearing age is considered a maiden. Usually only younger women dance the maypole though.”

I couldn’t decide if that was deeply feminist or the exact opposite. I watched the children dance. They were trying their best, although the little one’s were struggling a bit and a lot of the ribbons were getting tangled. 

One little girl, who wasn’t much past toddling, decided she had had enough. She burst into tears, let go of her ribbon, and rushed back to her mother who scooped her up. 

“There, you see what I’m always talking about,” said Ash’s grandmother as she thumped her cane on the ground. “The Maypole Dance isn’t for children, much less one’s so little they’ll throw a tantrum. Back when I was a child, the only way children participated in the festivities was to do a proper spiral dance when they were big enough to learn the steps. We practiced for weeks before and we made no mistakes.”

“Mom,” said Mary, Ashe’s mother. “Something doesn’t have to be perfect to be nice.”

“The children’s dance was an offering to the gods, while this,” she made a dismissive motion. “Is a bunch of little girls running in a circle with ribbons.”

“The children’s maypole is fun and I loved doing it when I was little,” replied Mary. 

“Well I voted against it before you were born. I think everyone who voted for it was just too lazy to take the time to teach their daughters a simple dance.”

“Things change.”

“They shouldn’t, not here.”

This was clearly a very old argument between the two women. 

Mary let out a tired breath “Please Mom, it’s Mayday, let’s try to just enjoy it.”

The children finished winding the ribbons and then joined hands to skip in a circle around the pole. One of the older girls, a coltish looking child of about twelve, tripped over her own feet and fell in the grass, causing a pileup. Everyone applauded anyway. 

The woman with the grey hair presented one of the smallest girls with an entirely purple flower crown and what appeared to be a scepter of wood and flowers. I wasn’t sure why she’d picked that child. The girl didn’t bawl or flee though so clearly she was a good choice. 

She accepted her crown and scepter solemnly and there was a great deal of cheering. One of the older women then began to herd the children towards a table where juice and cookies were already laid out. The children went eagerly towards the promise of sweets right after breakfast. 

The same grey haired woman clapped her hands and the younger women began to make their way towards the second maypole. 

I grabbed Ash’s arm. “I’m going to end up tripping like that child did. If you ever loved me, get me out of this.” I had never been a graceful person. 

She just grinned at me. “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

“Ash!”

“Just raise and lower you hand whenever everyone else going your direction does.”

“There are two directions?”

“Don’t worry, it’s easy.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the maypole. I was politely jostled by the other women into taking a ribbon. The maidens apparently ranged from about fifteen to a few women in their late thirties. The teenagers were giggling and beaming like they were being allowed to do an exciting grown up thing. The women in their twenties and older mostly just smiled. 

Nearly all of Ash’s friends, who had just returned to the island, including the one she had mentioned was pregnant, were there. I guessed that a woman must have counted as a maiden until she had a baby in her arms. 

The drum and pipe started and the other women began to move. Fortunately for me, I didn’t really need to dance, just sort of walk quickly and sometimes raise and lower my arm so that the ribbon I carried wound over and under those of the women going the opposite direction. 

Ash blew me a kiss every time she passed me. I tried to blow a kiss back and ended up forgetting the raise my arm when I was supposed to. I hoped I hadn’t messed up the whole thing, no one seemed to notice. I was so worried about it that I missed my cue again. 

The drumming and pipes got louder and louder as I and the other maidens finally reached the base of the maypole. I thought that would be the end of it. I was wrong. At first it was just a matter of joining hands and turning in a circle. Then it was forming two opposite circles. It got very confusing when you were supposed to let go of your circle, catch the hands of a woman in the next, spin once, and then rejoin your circle. 

I was soon very lost but I managed to stumble my way though. The music at last stopped when I found myself turning in Ash’s arms. I leaned against her catching my breath. “Easy huh?”

“Shh, my love. This part is important.”

The grey haired woman clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. 

She took a very ornate flower crown from another woman and approached the maypole. She gave me a half nod as she held it out to me. “Elizabeth O'Sullivan, I name you this years May Queen.”

I froze. How did she even know my name? “What?”

Ash was already tugging the crown her mother had given me off my head. “Kneel,” she whispered in my ear. 

I did, as I had no idea what else to do. The old woman set the crown on my head and there was applause.

The woman took another crown, one made of entirely ivy. “Ashlyn Morgan, I name you this year’s Vessel of the Spirits for this festival.”

She knelt and accepted the ivy crown. 

I had so many things I wanted to say to her but I didn’t get the chance to. A flock of women descended upon me and I found myself rather forcefully pushed onto a chair on a cart that several of the Morris dancers pulled.

“Ash!” I called frantically.

“It’s okay. You're just going to bless things.” she called as I whisked away. 

We didn’t go very far. The platform soon paused at a corner of the field and several women, who I quickly gathered were former May Queens began to dig a hole at the edge of the field while the morris dancers began to unsurprisingly dance. One younger women, who was trying to calm a baby in a sling, explained to me. 

“When the hole is dug, you need to crack in two eggs and then add raw meat, a honeycomb and jar of beer.”

The objected were handed to me one by one and I did that. Another woman fished a pair of scissors out of her apron. “We need a lock of your hair too dear.” 

I sacrificed a lock of my hair and then all the former May Queens used their hands to pour dirt back into the hole while singing in a language I could have sworn was Cornish. 

As soon as that was done I was whisked back onto the cart. Before we were done, I threw flowers into a well, wrapped ribbons around an ancient oak, and buried what I was very sure was a dried placenta, which I suspect came from the baby the last years May Queen was carrying at her breast.

I was more than relieved when we finally returned to the field with the maypole. I was swept to the head of a long table and seated beside Ash. She took my hand and raised it while also lifting a glass. I took up my own glass and did the same. She said something in Cornish and there was another cheer. Then at last, people began to eat. 

I slumped into my chair. “Babe, what the hell just happened?”

She kissed my cheek and nudged a plate of food towards me. “You gave the May blessings.”

“Why am I the May Queen?”

“The wise woman chose you.”

“I know a setup when I see it,” I whispered. “I wasn’t picked for my dancing.”

“I asked her to, I’ll explain later.”

The food, at least, was incredible. It had fish and chicken and fresh spring vegetables and greens. There was a strong summer mead that made my head spin. 

When the meal was done there was a series of games and contests, ranging from singing to foot races, most were for the children. Fortunately it seemed my more formal duties as May Queen were done and Ash and I settled in with most of the other adults on blankets on the grass to watch. Somewhat bizarrely, at one point there was a Piñata. It was shaped like a dragon.

“That can’t be traditional,” I whispered. 

“It’s not, one of my great aunts once brought one back from a trip to Mexico and everyone loved it so much they have one at Mayday every year now.” 

“The islands got a bit of a magpie culture, doesn’t it?” 

She shrugged. “We keep the old ways that still makes sense and add new traditions when we want.” 

I grew drowsy as the afternoon wore on and dozed off with my head pooled in Ash’s lap. She woke me as the heat of the day began to fade. “Come on love, there’s another tradition for maidens, well the maidens and any mother who can get someone else to watch her kids or any older woman who’s spry enough to make it up the path.”

We hiked up a winding path into the hills. I found it challenging not to get my dress caught on anything and keep my footing in the simple sandals I had been given. Our short hike yielded a beautiful stone grotto with a deep pool and small waterfall. 

With a whoop one of the teenager girls yanked off her dress and dove in. Another followed yelling “Bonzai!” and doing a full cannonball, much to the annoyance of anyone still dressed who was standing close enough to be splashed.

“Skinny dipping?” I asked Ash.

“Basically. Women come up here all year but its special on Mayday. They say the water can wash away all worries.”

“Help me get out of this damn corset thing and I’ll give it a try.” 

She did. The water was blessedly cool after the pleasant heat of the day. I won’t know if the water of the spring washed away all my worries but it felt wonderful. 

After we swam, we lay on the sun warmed rocks at the edge of the grotto letting the cooling air dry out skin. Some of the teenagers and younger women were still splashing around but most of the adults had retreated to the rocks. Ash and I had chosen a spot far enough away that we could speak softly. 

Seeing Ash, reclining naked on the stones was enough to heat my blood even if we were in far too public a place for me to do anything about it. While she was an academic, she loved running as much as I did and was in good shape. She was a lot better at keeping up with other forms of exercise and actually did do some weight lifting and attended a free kickboxing class at the university. 

She wasn’t an athlete but her body was pleasingly lean, her stomach flat and her broad shoulders lightly muscled. Her white skin seemed almost to shine in the fading light of the day. The cool air had pebbled her rosy pink nipples. 

I knew I struck a less impressive figure. I had never been tall and the skinniness of my youth had long since begun to yield to curves. I didn’t mind the new fullness that my late twenties had brought to my chest and hips but was less pleased with the slight roundess it had added to my stomach. Ash always said she loved me exactly as I was and I loved her for that.

She took my hand. “There is something I need to tell you about the final ritual of the day for the May Queen and the Vessel of the Spirits.” 

“Oh?” 

“It’s well…” She took a breath steadying herself. “You’ve realized that this place is magic right?”

“Yes, it is incredibly beautiful.”

“No, I mean actually magic.”

I tilted my head slightly as I looked at her. “You’re going to have to explain.”

“The island and the women of it are blessed by the goddesses and spirits of the forest and sea.”

I nodded.

She shook her head. “No, I really mean it. You asked why there were no men on the island, its because it actually repels them. I said that grown men weren’t allowed on the island but sometimes when people from the government come to inspect the island’s school or run health clinics and stuff we have to let them. Something about this place starts to get to them almost instantly, like an itch under the skin. Most can manage a few hours, maybe even a day but longer than that and they’ll steal a boat just to get away from this place. When I was a kid a government inspector was trapped there during a three day storm, the poor man was an utter wreck by the time they could get him back to the mainland. 

“And the no baby boys being born here thing?” I hated to ask but I still had a bad feeling that either selective terminations or infanticide was going on. 

“Women who were born on the island never conceive them. No one knows how it works or why. We know that women of island blood who are born on the mainland can have sons though. When I was growing up, a woman whose mother had left the island and had her on the mainland, came to the island with two twin baby boys. 

The island doesn’t seem to affect children and the two twins did fine until they hit puberty. Then they started to get really restless. Their mother had to send them to a boarding school when they were about twelve. They still came back for holidays for a bit but by the time they reached university they couldn’t even stand to be on the island for a whole day, so their mom started just going to the mainland to see them. It was the same for a boy who was brought here by his stepmother as his father died.”

I believed that she believed what she was saying. She still hadn’t exactly convinced me the island had anything more than a mass delusion going on, one that could pull other people into it. 

She saw the disbelief in my face. “And there’s another thing. Women don’t have to leave the island to get pregnant.”

“There’s a fertility clinic?”

She flushed. “It’s more like, well there’s a sort of ritual thing with the island’s guardian spirits.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

She started talking really fast, the way she usually did when she was feeling guilty. “It’s why I wanted us to come here after we decided to have a baby and why I got you chosen as the May Queen. Tonight there is a final ritual at the end of the festival.”

“What kind of ritual?” I asked carefully. 

“The Rite of May. The May Queen lies with the Vessel of the Spirits on the village altar. As they couple a spirit possess the Vessel and quickens the May Queens womb.”

I stared at her. 

She looked at me pleadingly. “I’m sorry, I know I should of told you about this, that it’s something we should have discussed instead of me just making a decision. I just didn’t think you’d really believe me until you saw the island. I know it must all seem strange but you’ve got to believe me.”

I shook my head sharply. “Wait, back up a step, before we even get into whether forest spirits exist, much less impregnate people, I think we need to talk about how you signed me up to have sex with you on an altar in front of your entire bloody family.”

“It’s not as weird as you think,” said Ash desperately. “It’s not even like that many people will be there, it’s late in the evening after the parents have taken their children home and most of the older people have gone to be. My mom and grandmother won’t even be there.”

“Great, so we’re supposed to fuck in front of only half the village then!” I may have started yelling, several other women glanced towards us worriedly.

“There’s music and dancing and stuff, it’s not like people just watch you.”

I stood up searching around angrily for my dress. “Well you have better go tell the village priestess to go find another May Queen because I’m not doing it.”

I found it and tugged it over my head. The cloth corset was too complex so I just carried it. I as shoving my feet into my sandals when I felt Ash’s hand on my shoulder. “Liz, please don’t be angry.”

I whirled on her. “I’m not angry, I am so weirded out right now I don’t even know how to begin.” I actually was angry.

Her beautiful face fell. The sight of hurt in those warm green eyes cooled my anger and panic faster than anything else could have. 

“I’m sorry Liz, I’ve messed this up,” she said.

“Yes you have,” I said, then most softly. 

“I wish I knew how to explain this better or could help you see how much it means to me.”

“Try.”

She sat down next to me at the edge of the clearing where I had been fighting with my sandals. We were far enough from the others we could truly speak in privacy. Women and girls had began to gather their clothes and head back down the path. 

She took my hand. “It has meant the world to me to show you my home, this place and these people that I love so much.”

I nodded.

She kept talking. “And I know that to an outsider, The Rite of May, must sound utterly bizarre and perverted. It’s not though, its beautiful and meaningful and part of what shapes my world. I’ve seen it done every year since I came of age, at least years I’ve made it back to the island for May Day. I’ve felt the drums’ rhythm in my bones and danced in the circle and seen the couples move together in grace and beauty. This is something I have longed to be the center of since I was a young woman, I never found anyone I wanted to do it until I met you.” 

She faltered for a moment, her emotions overwhelming her. “And I understand if I am asking too much of you. If this is something you cannot do then I will accept it. If I cannot share the The Rite of May with you, I do not want it anymore. I love you Liz, you are my wife and everything that matters to me in my life and you matter more to me than this.”

She had always had a velvet tongue in more ways than one. I felt my heart melt. “Truly.”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll do it.” I absolutely didn’t think she could knock me up by laying with me on an altar but if that was something she needed to do then I would do it with her.

She kissed me then, deep and truly, her eyes wet with tears of relief as joy. 

We were not allowed to get ready together. As soon as we returned from the waterfall, I was whisked away by several former May Queens. I ended up lying on a stranger's bed as several women carefully drew ornate designs on my skin with red ink. They carefully braided beads and bells and flowers into my hair, twisting it up into a complex shepherdess's crown. There were charms for my neck and wrists and ankles and even a string of bells they tied around my hips. 

As they worked the other women talked and giggled and told me what to expect. The moment the last year’s May Queen brought up the subject of the carved stone dildo, I nearly died of awkwardness. 

When I was ready, they gave me a white silk robe instead of a dress. Someone pressed a mug into my hand. The wine of it tasted strange and bitter. 

“What is this?”

An old May Queen told me. “It’s traditional.”

I hesitated. “Is this some kind of hallucinogenic because the one time I tried mushrooms I ended up thinking I was talking to Jane Austen for about four hours.”

“Don’t worry dear, this is much more fun.”

“I don’t know, you didn’t hear what Jane Austen had to say.” I drained the mug. I sure as hell wasn’t going to have sex in front of village while sober. While I might have had some exobitionists fantasties in the more wild corners of my mind, they were not something I had ever dared consider, much less acted upon. 

They led me through the empty streets of the village by lantern light. We went past the clearing of the maypoles to one farther on. It was smaller and a heavy stone altar, that looked as old as the island itself sat at the center of a circle of torches. It was covered in ornate runes. I recognized the face of the Green Man, the horns of a stage, a half moon set within a whole moon and multiple complex spirals. 

Several women were playing drums and pipes and the rest were engaged in a complex turning circle dance around the altar. They all still wore their white clothes and flower crowns from earlier in the day. As Ash has said, they were mostly younger, although not all. 

As soon as I stepped within the circle of light cast by the torches, the grey haired priestess fell silent and everything went silent. Then the drums struck up again and the former May Queens urged me forward into the dance. I did not know the steps but always there were hands grabbing my own tugging me one way or the other. My feet found their stumbling way.

Whatever had been in the mug I was given was finally taking effect. I barely heard the music slow or resume and yet suddenly I was pressed into Ash’s arms. She wore ivy in her hair and was as beautiful as she had been the day I wed her. My heart felt so full I thought it would break. 

She knew the steps and turned us again and again. When the music stopped she pulled me to her and kissed me with all the love and desire we had ever held between us. 

“Put your arms around my shoulders,” she whispered and then swept me up into her arms. I giggled and clung to her. From the first time she’d carried me to bed, I had known I was hers. 

She set me down on the cold stone of the altar. All around us the music picked up again and the dancing resumed. I offered her a hand and she climbed up after me. 

“Your so beautiful,” she whispered. With trembling hands the undid the sash of my robe and pushed it down my shoulders.

I felt suddenly and intensely exposed. She kissed me again and I calmed, at least until I felt something cold and stone brush against my leg. 

“They weren’t joking about the stone phallus thing were they?” I whispered as I undid her robe. 

“No,” she laughed softly. 

I had no complaints. We had a well used silicone toy back on the mainland in our own apartment. 

She left a trail of kisses down my body. 

“Babe, your not going to…” Go down on me in front of everyone, although the dancers did seem rather distracted.

She looked up, grinning devilishly. “Get you wet?” 

I blushed, if it was even possible for me to blush more. I was already more than wet. She took her time tracing one breast with her fingers and briefly drawing the other into her mouth before kissed lower. I parted my legs for her. She was as talented in putting her tongue to a practical application as she was with words. 

She knew and my body perfectly. She began lightly, tracing around my clit with the tip of her tongue and then press it harder. I gasped and covered my mouth, fighting down embarrassment at the sound. The music at least seemed to drown me out. 

She pressed two fingers into me just as she began to suck on my clit. I got a lot louder. I may have started moaning when she began to fuck me properly. All around me was sound a movement. When I looked up I saw Ursa Major distant and true in the night sky. The crescent moon had just begun to rise upon the horizon. I tangled my hands in the familiar softness of my wife’s sleek black hair and I was lost. I cried my pleasure to the night and the music and the stone beneath my back. 

As my orgasm eased, Ash slipped her fingers from me and sat up. “Do you want to stay like this for the next part?”

I kissed her with abandon. “I’d rather ride you.” The toy was big so I wanted some control. As far as sex with strap-on’s went, I usually prefered to be on top. It let me set the pace and fuck myself as hard as I wanted to.

It wasn’t until she had shifted and Ash lain down upon the stone and I over her that I realized just how much the new position exposed me. I knew I should feel embarrassed, exposed, and vulnerable but I felt more desirable and powerful than I ever had before. All eyes were upon me and for the first time in my life I truly welcomed that attention. Whatever drug they had given me was doing one hell of a job of lessening my inhibitions. 

To their credit the dancers and musicians seemed intent on their own tasks, although I saw glances some curious and some knowing cast our way.

Ash looked so beautiful beneath me. Her pale skin was flushed and pupils blown. She must have drunk the same thing I had. I saw so much desire and love in her familiar features. I leaned down to kiss her deeply before pulling back again. 

I rose up and guided the stone phallus to my slick entrance and slowly sunk down on it. It was big and lacked the give of the softer silicone toys I usually preferred. It filled me perfectly and hit just the right places inside of me. I gave myself a moment to adjust then I began to move, rolling my hips. The music grew louder the dancers turned faster and faster around us. 

I felt a fierce joy and pleasure bubbling up inside of me. Ash had one hand on my hip guiding my motions as she began to move to meet me. I closed my eyes and fell into the rhythm of our intimate dance.

I ached to see Ash’s gaze again and forced my eyes open in spite of the waves of pleasure. The eyes looking back at me through my wife’s eyes were not her own. They reflected the light of the torches the way a deer or a cat’s might have. Human eyes don’t do that.

I pulled back and I would have scrambled off of her, if her grip on my wrist hadn’t been as strong as steel. “Don’t be afraid little maiden.” 

“What are you?” My voice trembled as my fear warred with my desire.

The woman that was my wife and yet was not cupped my face with a gentle hand. Her skin was far hotter than it should have been. “I am a giver of life and a guardian of this place. I am your lovers patron spirit and would be yours as well sweet girl.”

I trembled. The music had become nearly deafening. “Give her back.” 

“I have not taken her little maiden. She gave herself freely to me as my vessel on this blessed eve. She will be herself again when I leave this circle.” Even her voice sounded different, as old as the islands stones and yet young as the ivy in her hair. She brushed her thumb against my lower clit and I shivered with a need so deep that I clenched on the toy inside of me without ever consciously meaning too. 

“Share with me your beauty and your desire little maiden and I will quicken your womb ere dawn’s first light. That is what you want isn’t it? Why else would you have come to my altar with cornflowers in your hair?”

I felt my fear ease and my courage return. I leaned down and kissed her. Her lips were as hot as the sun warmed stones I had laid upon beside the waterfall earlier that day and yet they did not burn me. The touch of her hands on my naked body was strong and sure, both familiar and unknown.

I wanted her, I wanted her so damn much. I wanted Ash and I wanted the strange creature who looked at me through her beloved eyes. My body began to move of its own volition. 

“Take me,” I whispered.

“As you wish.”

She rolled us with an easy grace and began thrusting the strange stone toy inside of my body, making me gasp and moan. The sound of the music, the light of the torches, even the distant brilliance of the stars of the vast sky above us, all faded away. There was nothing but the woman over me and those strange, beautiful eyes that could belong to no mortal woman. 

I moved against her, meeting every roll of her hips. I was beyond shame or embarrassment and cried my pleasure to the night. My back arched and my inner walls clutched at the dildo as I shuddered my orgasm. She kissed me again and I felt my desire spark anew. I clutched at her shoulders, digging my blunt nails into her skin. 

She began to move again. I know I screamed when my next orgasm took me and then again for the one after that. Everything melded into a shifting tangle of pleasure. I slumped onto the hard stone, utterly exhausted. 

She settled beside me, kissing my forehead. “As promised, I return your lover to you little maiden. May you both know every joy.” 

The last thing I remembered was Ash, my Ash, whispering my name and then I fell into a sated slumbed. 

I woke at the first light of dawn. The altar was very hard beneath me. I was curled against my wife’s sleeping form. Ash was snoring softly, the way she usually did. We were alone in the empty clearing. 

“Ash?”

She blinked her eyes open slowly, they were a familiar deep green. “Morning beautiful.”

“Did we…” I wasn’t even sure what to say.

She grinned. “What do you think we did?”

“Got high as kites and fucked on an altar while about half your village danced in a circle of torchlight and played drums?”

She tilted her head slightly. “I’m pretty sure we did a bit more than that. I was acting as a vessel but I still remember.”

My face heated, “that didn’t really happen did it?”

She kissed me. “It did.”

“I’m not really…” If my attempts to track things were right, I was ovulating. Still, my previous understanding of reality had not involved the possibility of getting impregnated by some sort of demi goddess/ forest spirit. Then again, it it saved spending a couple thousand on a clinic’s services, I was willing to broaden my view of reality. 

“It never fails. The May Queen always carries.” She laid a hand on my stomach, which looked the same as it ever had. 

A slight shiver of apprehension ran down my spine. “This isn’t going to end up being a Rosemary's baby sort of situation is it?” 

“No, children born of the May Day ritual are as human as any others. The island will call to our daughter as it calls me but that is all.”

It was so strange to think of a possibility just kindled as “our daughter.” My heart ached with so many feelings. 

“I love you,” I said. 

“I love you too.” she replied. Her stomach then chose that moment the growl. It was breakfast time. 

I had to fight down the urge to giggle. “So, please tell me that we don’t have to walk back to your mom’s house naked and covered in paint and flowers.”

“If we’re lucky, our robes are still here somewhere.”

We found them eventually.

We left at the end of the week. While I had my doubts about whether I was actually pregnant, everyone else seemed absolutely certain that I was. Ash’s mom had given me a large bag of different herbal teas, all with hand written instructions. As far as I could tell it was mostly mint, raspberry leaves, chamomile and ginger. I was no herbalist but I knew that most of those were for nausea and used to treat morning sickness. I wasn’t looking forward to that. 

Her grandmother had given me a couple stone and bone amulets to wear. She seemed very concerned that my “selkie kinfolk” might try and snatch my future daughter after the was born and warned me about it repeatedly as we said goodbye on the dock.

“There’s not much magic in you girl, for all the seal in your eyes, but your child will have magic, mark my word. You must be careful, those sea folk, they are sure to call her. If you turn your back on her for an instant near the sea, you just might see a seal pup diving into the waves. If you ever find a seal pelt in the cradle hid it over the hearth, that’s the best way to keep such a child on the shore.”

As Ash and I watched the Island fade away, I asked. “We don’t really need to worry about or baby turning into a seal do we?” 

She shrugged, “Grandma’s usually right about that kind of thing.”

I settled against her arms. “You come from interesting people.”

She laughed softly. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“I liked them.”

“Truly?”

I kissed her cheek. “Just wait until you meet my family.”

“You didn’t even know you had selkie blood until my grandmother brought it up.”

“No but my mother’s family is from Salem.” 

  
  



	2. Into the Waves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three years after their daughter Eva is born, Liz and her wife return to the island for the Samhain festival with the hope of conceiving another child. They soon learn that Ash’s grandmother really wasn’t joking about the whole selkie issue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I considered posting this as a stand-alone story but I wasn't sure it would make sense to anyone who hasn't read May Day, so I decided to post it as a second chapter. It is a separate story though.

Samhain’s cool fall winds buffeted our small motorboat as we made the journey from the mainland. While I sat hunched in my coat, shivering, my wife and daughter both leaned forward eagerly watching for the first sight of the island. 

While the dark-haired four-year-old had never been to the island of her mother’s birth before, she’d been fascinated from the first time she’d heard of it. As we grew nearer, she had become so restless, her mother had been forced to draw her into her lap to keep the over-eager child from standing and risking being thrown from the boat amidst the choppy waves. 

We had always meant to bring Eva to the island sooner, especially as her aging great grandmother could no longer make the journey to the mainland and the two had never met. Life had intervened though. Eva had been such a small infant, born a month early, that I’d feared she’d take sick on such a cold journey. 

Even when Eva had grown into a healthy toddler, Ash had been preparing to defend her Ph.D. and that had consumed our lives. After that, I’d gotten my first professorship and before we knew it we were celebrating Eva’s third birthday. A letter speaking of Ash’s grandmothers worsening health had finally galvanized us to return to the island off the Cornish coast. 

The island soon loomed on the horizon, verdant with fall colors against the darkness of the sea. Eva stilled in her mother’s arms, her green eyes wide with wonder. Ash bore a similar look on her face, something between awe and abject longing. She’d looked like that the first time she’d brought me to the island. It meant a great deal more than just home to her. 

As we grew nearer I saw two figures standing on the dock, one tall and straight the other hunched in a woven shall and leaning heavily on her walking stick. Ash’s mother and grandmother had come to greet us. 

No sooner had our boat woman, a distant cousin of Ash’s brought us up to the dock and begun to tie up the boat than Eva began to wiggle to free herself.

“Grandma, Grandma!” she called. 

She’d have probably tried to pull herself up onto the dock had Ash not stood and carefully lifted her up to her grandmother’s waiting arms. Ash’s mother, Mary, clutched the life vest clad child to herself, spinning her about in joy. 

“My darling, it is so good to see you.” She had come to the mainland for a few weeks to help when Eva was born and then once a year after that. She’s covered our apartment with strange runes and forced me to drink foul teas and tinctures and to eat soup made with liver but she had been very helpful and kind. I don’t know how Ash and I would have gotten through those first exhausting days without her. 

Ash followed her daughter up onto the dock and then turned back to offer me a hand up. She knew I had never been particularly steady on a boat. Once I had my feet solidly on the dock I greeted my mother-in-law. She balanced Eva on one hip and hugged me with her other arm. 

“Welcome back to the island Elizabeth.” 

…

Ash and I left Eva in her grandmother and great grandmother’s care the next morning and went for a hike. As parents of a young child, we seldom had much time to ourselves and we intended to take full advantage of the availability of eager babysitters that staying with family provided.

We took lunch with us as hiked up to the beautiful waterfall pool up in the hills that we’d gone to four years before during the Mayday festival. By the time we reached the pool, the chill of the morning had given way to a warm sunny way. The falling water created a series of dazzling little mist rainbows.

I was pleased to find that we had the beautiful grotto to ourselves. Ash chucked off her clothes and dove into the water the deep pool. I was as struck by the grace of her movement as the pleasing sight of my wife’s lean body and strong shoulders. 

I was slower to undress. I’d felt a bit less confident about my body since Eva had been born. I’d only recently managed to shed the last of the baby weight and although I’d used all the creams Ash’s mom had given me but my stomach and breasts still bore some stretchmarks. 

I suddenly had the feeling of being watched and raised my eyes to find Ash looking at me, grinning as she was treaded water. There was a warmth in her eyes, a mix of love and lust that washed away all my insecurities. 

“Come on, my love, come swim with me. I stepped into the water and we did. We stayed in the water until we were nearly chilled and then went and sunned ourselves on one of the warm rocks. 

Ash made a beautiful sight, all pale skin and long limbs her fine-featured face titled to the light, her eyes closed and framed by long dark lashes. She had just the slightest hint of freckles on her cheeks. I felt my heart tighten with love even as lust stirred in a very different part of me. 

When she opened her eyes and found me watching her, a smile slowly spread across her lips. I pulled her into a kiss before she could say anything snarky. Things we a very predictable direction after that. It had been far too long since we’d been able to simply make love as long as we wanted too, much less as loudly.

When we were done we lay there curled together, flushed and content. It was glorious to be able to simply lay there without worrying about needing to go check on Eva. Hell, it was nice just not to have anything else I needed to do. My phone didn’t work on the island and I had deliberately not brought any work with me. There was no laundry to be done, no papers to be graded, no journal articles to write.

Ash absently traced a hand down my body, resting it against my now mostly flat stomach. “So your really sure about this, trying again while we’re here.”

“Yes.”

We’d already talked the whole thing through so many times. Did we really want another child or were we just reacting to Eva getting bigger and more independent? Could we afford another child? Were we insane to have another baby when we were finally getting to sleep through the night again? 

The answer was yes, we did. We’d both always wanted more than one child and we weren’t getting any younger. It had been three years since Eva was born, I was as recovered as I was going to get. 

I was still not eager to go back to the hell of morning sickness that had lasted nearly into the second trimester of my last pregnancy. The herbs and tinctures that Ash’s family had sent with us had helped but only so much. 

I’d spent the first part of my pregnancy throwing up and swearing I was never going to do it again. Right, when I’d stopped being sick was when the back pain and all the other symptoms had set in. Eva had also been very good at kicking very early on. 

The birth, even though it had gone well, had still been one of the most terrifying and painful experiences of my life. Eva had come a month early, which meant that neither my mother nor Ash’s had been there. My obstetrician had been in surgery and I’d ended delivering with a doctor I’d never met before. 

Ash had been there and at the end, the nurse had handed me, Eva, tiny and howling with strong lungs I’d been so afraid might not be fully formed, I knew everything would be alright. Love has a way of dulling the memory of pain. 

Now that I knew exactly what I was setting myself up for, the decision to have another child had not been lightly made. One of our friends had once joked that I should make Ash carry the next baby, Ash had gotten an odd look on her face and not said anything. She’d been incredibly supportive during my pregnancy but she wasn’t the sort of woman who had any interest in ever being pregnant herself. We’d talked about it before and if it had turned out I couldn’t get pregnant we’d have ended up adopting. 

She kissed my cheek, bringing me back to the present. “Then we’ll do it this Samhain night during the festival.”

“How will it work exactly, we don’t have to be on an altar again do we?”

“No, that is only during the May Day ritual. That was as much about renewing the covenant between the village and the island as much as anything else. Simply kindling by one of the spirits of the island is a much simpler ritual. Women often seek to conceive during other festivals. 

I poked her in the ribs, “Do we have to have sex in public again?”

“Yes, but others will be doing it too.”

I felt myself blush. “Wait, are you telling me the village seriously has a Halloween orgy?”

“Not exactly an orgy but yes. When the dancing is done, and the bonfire begins to burn low there will be a blessing and we’ll lay down together on a blanket, as will any other couples trying to conceive. I’ll act as a vessel for my patron spirit again.

“Sometimes it still feels like I dreamed that part.” Had I not carried a healthy baby girl from that May night I’m still not certain I’d have ever believed it had been real. 

“Trust me, you didn’t,” she said very seriously. 

“Well it beats putting my legs up in stirrups and letting some doctor knock me up with a high tech turkey baster,” I said with a shrug.

That got a laugh out of her. 

“Much more fun,” she promised. 

We dressed and ate the lunch we had brought. By the time we finished, clouds were drifting in and the day was chilling. We packed up and headed back down the trail. When returned to Ash’s family home, we were met by the rich smell of chicken soup. A large pot was bubbling over the hearth. Ash’s Nana was busy sorting herbs on the table with her gnarled hands. 

Eva rushed to greet us as we came into the kitchen. and Ash scooped her up, spinning her about. Eva giggled and held her arms out like she was flying. 

Ash kissed her on the nose. “Did you have fun with your Nana and Gran?” 

“I killed a chicken with Nana. We put blood on the door.”

“You did what?” I know my eyes went large.

“I was only teaching the child the proper threshold blessing. Have you not seen your own wife do it?” asked the old woman. 

My eyes narrowed. “The what?” I had noticed a fresh red stain over the door when we came in, I had assumed it was paint. 

Ash signed as she settled Eva onto her hip. “Do you remember how I cut open a pomegranate and smeared it over the door of our apartment when we moved in.”

“Yes, you also said a lot of things in Cornish, I thought it was odd and neighbors stared but you said it was a family tradition.”

“It was. It just weirds people out when you go around smearing chicken blood on doors on the mainland so most island women use fruit instead when they are there. As long as it’s an offering of one sort or another it seals the threshold.”

Ash’s grandmother made a disgusted sound. “That may be what girls your age say but I think it is all foolishness. You can’t protect a home with fruit juice. You’d do better to buy blood from the butcher at the very least. Using fruit isn’t even taking a life and that is where the power lies.

I wasn’t ready to let go of my concern. “So wait, did you kill a chicken in front of my daughter?”

“Nana let me cut the throat. It was all red and gushy,” announced Eva grinning. 

I stared at the old woman. “You let her kill a chicken?”

“Past time she learned how.” The elder said it as if I had somehow failed to teach my child to say please and thank you.

There was so much I wanted to say. Ash laid a hand on my shoulder, when I glanced at her she was shaking her head very slightly. For the sake of all the love I bore her, I let the issue slide. 

Ash helped ease things along. “Eva baby, do you want to go see the seashore? There is time before dinner, we can go for a walk.”

“Yay! I want to swim,” declared Eva. 

Swimming in the frigid sea was certainly not an option but we didn’t tell our daughter that. We bundled her into her coat and set off. Soon enough we were strolling along the rocky shore. 

Eva was impressively energetic for such a small child. As Ash and I walked at our own more sedate pace she tugged at her mother's hand relentlessly. She’d always been like that, aching to run, to explore. The rocks along the shore were an irresistible temptation to her. 

At last, Ash yielded and released her hand, albeit with a stern warning to stay within sight and not to go into the water. Eva bolted for the nearest rock on the beach and scrambled up it. She surveyed the beach with a hand to shield her eyes, just like a little captain looking out at the sea from a crow’s nest.

Then she climbed down and was off running for the next rock. We were just rounding a curve that led into a small cove when she gave a cry of utter delight. 

“Seals! Mama, Mom, look, there are seals!” 

“Wait!” called Ash. “Come back!” 

Eva ignored her and kept going. For all her restlessness, she was normally an obedient child. She never just took off. That day seemed to be the exception. 

Ash and I broke into a run after her but she was fast. She headed straight for a small group of grey seals busy sunning themselves on the rocky shore. The group was made of cows and pups old enough to have shed their snowy white coats for their adult grey ones. 

“Eva no!” I called. “Don’t go near them, they are wild animals.”

She didn’t reply, didn’t turn, just kept running. At the sight of her, the dark-eyed grey lumps raised their heads but made no other signs of being troubled. She reached out and petted one. By some great mercy, the creator let her. 

“See, they are nice” she called back. 

Then suddenly, to my utter horror, she vanished. Well not vanished, exactly. One moment there was a skinny child in a red coat standing among the seals and then in the next instant, the seals all flowed into motion making a cacophonous, flopping return to the water. 

I thought Eva must have fallen, as I saw the brilliant red of her coat go down among those grey moving bodies. When I reached the coat, I found it was simply lying on the ground. 

“Eva! Eva!” I screamed. Ahead of us, the seal had reached the water, I saw them all diving into the waves, a snowy white seal pup among them. 

Ash hadn’t stopped at the coat, she kept running into the waves. “Eva! Eva! Come back!” When that didn’t work, she threw off her own coat onto the beach and dove into the frigid water. I stood on the shore, my heart in my throat, clutching my daughter’s empty coat until I saw Ash’s dark head break the waves.

“Give her back!” she screamed. “Give my daughter back, you selkie bitches!”

There was no answer, the seals were gone. The tide was already starting to go out. I could see that Ash was fighting just to keep her head above water. 

“Ash, please come back you’ll drown,” I called. 

She was coughing up water and shivering violently but the time I helped drag her back up onto the rocky shore. I stripped her wet clothes from her and draped her in her dry coat. I felt too frightened and numb to think of anything but keeping her alive. I couldn’t think of Eva, surely lost and drowned in the waves. 

How could I have just stood there dumbfounded as my child died? How could I have let my wife go into the water alone? I tried not to think of anything but getting Ash warm. 

Ash for her part seemed angry. She swore through her chattering teeth. “Those bitches, those fucking seal bitches! How dare they take her, they had no right to take her.”

I was fighting tears, even as I dragged her to her feet. I had to keep her moving, the night chill was already setting in. “What do you mean? What’s happened to our daughter?”

Ash was shivering so hard her teeth rattled. “It’s just like Nana warned, your kin took her.”

“My kin?”

“The selkies!” She waved wildly, even as I struggled to button her coat. “This isn’t the first time they’ve done it either. They carried off my second cousin Edna when she was a child.

“What?” I felt like I was losing her mind. I didn’t know what else to do so I grabbed Ash’s hand and started pulling her up the path back to the village. I couldn’t lose her to hypothermia. 

“It was alright in the end, Edna’s selkie father just wanted to spend more time with her. He sent her home at the end of the summer.”

“Ash, you’re not making any sense.”

She kept rambling. “At least Edna’s father had some claim to custody though. Your selkie blood is generations back, they had no right to take Eva. They broke the ancient laws.”

I froze in my step. “Wait, you seriously mean that selkies have abducted our daughter.”

“Yes,” She looked at me like I was the crazy one. “You saw her turn into a seal pup, same as I did.” 

I felt my tears start to fall. “She’s alive then?” 

She finally seemed to realize how upset I was. She pulled me into her arms, hugging me, even though she was the one whose lips were practically turning blue. “Yes, she just shapeshifted, that’s all. She’ll be safe with the selkies, they always protect their kin. They are good folk, just difficult. We have to make them give her back.”

“How...how do we do that?” 

“We ask my Nana for help.”

The next hour was a confusing blur. The moment we burst into the cottage, Ash announced. “Nana the selkies took Eva!”

Her grandmother rose from the fireside with impressive spryness for a woman her age. “Those damn sea folk, I knew they would, I warned you. I warned you both, I did.”

The old woman was on her way out the door, cane in hand, before her daughter Mary, stopped her. “Wait, mother, you know we have to get the other elders first.”

As they argued, Ash sneezed and they both noticed the state she was in. In the end, I was charged with finding the elders as Ash’s mother and grandmother got her into a bath and some warmer clothes. 

My task at least wasn’t hard. I went three doors down and knocked on a door and was greeted by Ash’s violinist friend who had a child my own daughter’s age clinging to her skirts. I told her what happened and asked. “Is your grandmother in? Ash’s mother says we need the elders to assemble. Selkies have stolen my daughter.”

Rather than look upset, the young woman just made an annoyed huffing sound. “Those bloody seals, how dare they, and right before the festival too. They better return her with some good gifts. Come in, I’ll get my grandmother.” She ushered me in, put her own child in my lap before she went off to find her grandmother.

In the end, I found myself and a much warmed up Ash sitting in the town council hall with about ten old women, as well as a fair share of their daughters and granddaughters. There was a great deal of murmuring and talk and a certain degree of swearing both in Cornish and English.

The general tone was of aggravation rather than genuine fear. No one, other than me, seemed to think my daughter was in any genuine danger. As others talked, Ash drew me into our arms. “She’s safe my love,” she whispered in my ear. The selkies are odd but they are still of the island and kin to many of the women here. Eva is as safe among them as she would be with my cousins.”

“We’ve never left her with your cousins and they certainly have never snatched her.”

She stroked my back. “I know darling but you must trust me. The selkies will not be able to take her beyond the island, the spirits of this place will not allow it.”

It was cold comfort. It was even less comforting when all the old woman decided that the best thing to do was to go to bed and then go talk to the selkies in the morning. I did not sleep that night. No one else in the household did either. Ash’s Nana was angry enough she still wanted to charge down to the harbor but Ash’s mother managed to dissuade her.

Dawn came in its own good time and we walked down to the cove with what seemed to be about half the elderly members of the island at our backs. From what I gathered, the younger women seemed to already consider the matter settled.

Ash’s Nana thumped her cane in the surf at the water's edge and called out. “ Ginetta, you old sea cow, come talk to me!”

There was a long silent moment and then a whole pod of seals came surging out of the tide. A woman rose from among them, as bent backed as the oldest of the islanders, wrapped in a seal skin. She had hair the same deep grey as a seals fur and huge dark eyes. Her skin was as pale as any woman of the islands. 

She walked stiffly from the waves, her kin moving even less gracefully at her feet in their seal forms. 

“Don’t call me a cow, you’re the land dweller.”

“I’ll call you whatever I want, you grandbaby thief.”

“I’m hardly a thief, the sweet child found her second form and came into the waves of her own accord.”

“You had no right to take her farther, she’s no recent kin of yours,” snapped the old woman.

“She’s a dark one, she belongs to my people by the old laws.”

My nerve broke and I rushed forward before I could stop. “Give her back, give me my baby back!”

The old woman in the seal skin merely smiled. “Hello, kinswoman.”

I wanted to shake her but even in my panic, I wasn’t the sort of person to hurt an old woman. 

“Please, where is my daughter, is she safe?”

Her weather-worn face softened. Before I realized what was happening she in front of me, her lined hands were touching my face and her dark eyes looking into mine. “Poor thing, you are my distant kin but you’ve too much of Eve’s blood in you to ever claim the sea on our own, even if it has always called you.” She turned my face the other way, still studying me. “No matter, we can lend you a second skin to mend that. Come with me dear, I’ll take you to your little one. She misses you.”

“Yes,” I was a woman in a trance. I would go to my child, that was all that mattered.

“No,” snapped Ash and her voice woke me from my daze, as she grabbed my arm, her hand warm against my skin. “She is my wife and you have no right to take her. You will return our child, she belongs with us, not in the sea.”

The old woman huffed. “The child came with us willingly, Her second skin came to her as naturally as flight to a bird.”

Ash’s nana gave a hacking cough to get everyone’s attention. “I don’t care if my great grandbaby swims like a savant, you've still no right to custody. You know the rules if you wanted time with the child, you have to ask her parents permission.”

The old selkie narrowed her huge eyes, shifting her gnarled feet in the rocky sand of the surf. “Oh, are those the rules then? You lot certainly didn’t ask permission before you sent my grandbaby, Edna, to the world of Adam upon the mainland.”

“It was the girl’s choice,” said the old woman.

“A lass that age has no idea what she wants. You let her go on her own and unprotected.” said the selkie.

“For goodness sake,” said a middle-aged blond woman stepping forward, “Stop being so dramatic Ginetta. My daughter is getting an astrophysics degree at the university not walking among wolves. She’s studying in the same university as several of her cousins and she has dinner with an aunt every other Sunday. She is safe and loved and chasing her dreams.”

“Her father is worried,” insisted the selkie.

“Well, your son is a terribly nervous and protective man for a selkie,” snapped the blond woman. “And his daughter did talk to him about this before she went. If he can’t support his daughter in pursuing her ambitions then maybe he’s the one with issues.”

The elder selkie did look a bit less certain. “She didn’t come home for midsummer.”

“She had finals. Tell her father if he wants news he can stop being so damn sensitive and come talk to me.” She lowered her voice softy. “I know things ended badly between him and me but even he can’t hate me so much that he can’t bear to come to the water’s edge and talk about our daughter.”

The elder selkie’s lined face softened further. “Oh child, you know the poor fool is still in love with you.”

“Tell him to bloody come talk to me then, not that he will. He’s probably off sunning himself in on some beach in Wales. That fool always said I wouldn’t commit but he was the one who kept swimming off to the edge of to goddess knows where for weeks on end.”

The selkie seemed genuinely embarrassed. “I’ll have a word with my son.” 

As the awkwardness began to seep in, Ash’s Nana said. “Now, back to the matter at hand. Where is my great grandbaby, her poor mothers are terribly worried.”

The grey-haired woman’s’ huge eyes narrowed. “You were not so concerned when you and your kinsfolk kept one of my other grandchildren for nearly three days, one who wasn’t even of the islands blood.” 

Ash’s mother stepped forward. “You should be thanking us for what we did, not complaining. The child wandered into town naked in the midst of a snowstorm.”

“You had to know what she was. There is no mistaking Selkie’s eyes, even without a sealskin. You should have brought her back to the waves immediately.”

“She said she’d run away, it took time to understand from what.”

“Her mother had died, she was upset. We were taking care of her.”

“Yes, but we had to be sure. The world of this island and the surrounding waters may be safe for children but little else in this world is.”

“Three days we were afraid.”

“And three days we kept her safe and returned her calm and whole when the storm broke. Enough of this.  Give the little seal pup back to her mothers’ arms. You can see the fear and longing in her mother’s faces. You are many things but cruel is not one of them.”

The selkie sighed. “I want your word she’ll be brought back again. There are so few of my kind left, much less dark ones from the Irish isles.”

Ash’s grandmother turned to me. “Will you bring your daughter to visit her kin?”

I froze. I almost said I’d give anything just to have my daughter back. Ash’s hand on my shoulder gave me pause. “Can she visit without the selkie without them taking her again?”

“Can she?” She asked the selkie elder. Ash’s grandmother could be very sharp in her tone when she needed to.

The selkie gave a very aggravated and pained sound. “Yes, of course. We’re not fey, you know, but sea folk. We don’t steal, merely call to what is ours.”

Ash stepped forward, “tell us the exact terms you’re asking for.”

The old woman gave her a respectful nod and then addressed me. “Let your daughters bare feet touch the waves of the isle every two years until she is old enough to chart her own path. If you fear for her to step into the waves alone, come with her, you’ve no second skin of your own, but we can lend you, one sweet child. It is past time you knew your own heritage.”

“Please, just give me my baby.” I was well past my breaking point. 

“Of course, please forgive us for all the fear we have caused you dear one, truly we wish you and your little one the best.”

She made a motion with her hand and suddenly two grey furred seals were gently urging a small white pup from the water. I rushed forward, kneeling in the waves, not caring that the frigid water soaked my pants. Ash was beside me, just as frantic. 

I knew the soft furred little seal pup was Eva, there was no mistaking the huge dark eyes that looked up at me. The moment my hands touched the soft baby fur of the little seal, I felt the deep panic that had consumed me since the day before finally ease.

The fur fell away beneath my hands and I was clutching a human child in a damp shirt and pants. I scooped her up, pulling her as close as I could get her. Ash’s arms were around us both. She smelled of seaweed and fish and herself and I loved her so much that I thought my heart would break.

“Mamma, Mom, “ chirped Eva. “The seals are super nice.”

I just cried harder, clutching at the tiny little body that held my soul.

We left the elders to their negotiations and took our child home. 

At the house, Eva ate the soup that had been reheated from the day before and talked excitedly about her escapades as a seal, which mostly consisted of diving, eating fish and sunning herself on rocks. What for me had been the most terrifying moment of my life had been a great adventure for her. 

I checked Eva over very carefully when I bathed her but I could find no evidence of an actual second skin. Ash’s mother, Mary, later told me that magic was complicated. Eva was more a shapeshifter than a true selkie. She likely got that power from the island spirit that had sired her, which was why she could become a seal when my own selkie blood was too weak to do such a thing on my own. I didn’t quite believe that I could ever change forms, even if the selkies had seemed certain I could if they gave me a seal skin. I would deal with that later.

That night I just clutched my baby. I’d have given anything to have her back and now I had her and the weight of love was almost more than I could bear. We all curled up on the guest bed together. Ash and I had been so good about not letting Eva sleep in our bed, the parenting books said we’re supposed to. When Eva crawled into our bed at night, afraid of monsters and such, we’d carry her back to her own room waiting for her to sleep and then come back to bed. That was everyone said to do, something about teaching children to be self-sufficient.

We chucked all of that out that night. We curled around her, listening to the soft sound of her little snores as she drifted off. My mother had once told me that being a parent meant letting your heart would walk about outside yourself, I hadn’t understood until I’d become a mother myself. I still missed my mother, even though she was a year cold in the earth. She’d only met Eva once before her health became too poor to handle the cross Atlantic flight. I fell asleep curled up with my wife and daughter and slept deeply, dreaming of the dark ocean. 

The festivities for all Hallow’s Eve did not dawn as early as May Day had and we slept late, all of utterly exhausted, even Eva. We had originally had plans to go on another hike that day but neither Ash nor I could bear to be away from Eva and she was still too small to walk very far, so we passed much of the day in the house helping brew tinctures and other things. 

In the late afternoon, we helped Eva carve several Jack-O'Lanterns from turnips, as was the tradition. Eva was certainly too little to hold a knife but she loved drawing the designs with markers. 

I was more than a little surprised to learn that the island had Trick-or-treating. From the way Ash’s grandmother huffed about the whole thing, it had apparently originally had origins in a far more traditional custom of children being sent to collect offerings for the feast. 

Modern influence, especially that of American television, had led to a far more recognizable practice of children running about with costumes and bags collecting candy from all the houses on the island. We gave Eva a raven mask and a red cloak that had once been Ash’s when she was herself a child and went door to door. She adored it. 

A few houses gave out little round sweets, called soul cakes, but most just gave normal plastic-wrapped candy. There were traditional songs and chants I saw a few children give when promoted by the adults of the house they came to. Most seemed to simply call out the more familiar refrain of “Trick or treat!”

The whole business finished up just before sunset so that everyone could get to the feast. Most of the sugar stuffed children didn’t eat anything but as an adult, I was very happy to try as many of the different kinds of meat and sweet pies that were on offer. The crisp fall cider was wonderful as well. I knew I should enjoy it while I could. If I conceived at the festival it would be some time before I could have alcohol again. 

Eva fell asleep in Ash’s arms just as the fires were being lit and the dancing was starting. Ash carried her home to put her to bed. Her grandmother was already tiring and walked back with her, she would watch Eva for the night. 

I sat with Ash’s mother watching the dancing, the music was a mix of pipes and drums and very quick and lively. Unlike the Maypole dance, there wasn’t a great deal of precision to how women moved around the fire. It was mostly just a lot of turning and clapping and more of a communal thing than a partnered affair. 

It got lively are more of the smaller children were carried off the cider flowed. When Ash came back she caught my hand and tugged me onto the hard-packed earth around the bonfire. I was no dancer but I let twirl me for the sake of seeing her beautiful smile in the firelight. 

I had never had a sense of rhythm before but there was something to the beat of the drums that seemed to tell my feet what to do. We danced until we were breathless and then went and drank more sider and ate soul cakes. 

I time I noticed that most of the older children were being ushered home and soon enough even the teenagers. Most of the elders wandered off as well. Fewer and fewer dancers and drinkers remained. 

Shortly before midnight, when the stars burned brilliantly in the October sky and the fire began to dim, the music stopped. A grey-haired woman, the same who had judged the Maypole Dance, stepped out into the circle of light and said something in Cornish I did not understand. 

Ash took my hand again and led me to her. I noticed several other couples doing the same. When it was our turn, the elder spoke to Ash in Cornish and then to me in English. “You wish to conceive this night?”

“Yes,” I said with certainty.

“Then may the blessings of the goddesses be upon you this night.” 

She put a clay amulet hung on a leather cord about my neck. It was stamped with a symbol that reminded me of the Venus of Willendorf. Then she smeared something red on my forehead. It smelled like blood and herbs and possibly also some manner of fruit.

“Good luck,” she whispered and I knew we were dismissed. 

She retried a blanket she’d left on a bench of one of the long trestle tables and laid it out on the ground just outside of the fire’s light. She sat down and guided me to do the same. There was no sound now save the distant strumming of a small lap hard, I had to really wonder who the hell had volunteered to play the harp during something like this.

Sitting there on the blanket with her, seeing the outline of other couples in the darkness doing the same made me feel suddenly, deeply exposed and awkward. 

“So do we just…” I wasn’t sure what I was asking. 

“Yeah,” I could hear the warmth in her voice. 

I wasn’t sure why I was so embarrassed. I’d had sex on an altar in front of half the village before. I’d also been at least kind of drugged and there had been louder music. Now I was barely tipsy and the harp was a bit too gentle to really set the mood. 

Ash was unperturbed, she drew me into a kiss, her lips soft against my own. She had always been a very good kisser and soon enough I began to forget my worries. 

She drew my shirt over my head and I did the same to her. Soon enough, we were divested of our clothes, as naked as the day we were born as we lay together on the soft wool blanket that smelled of lavender. 

I stretched out beneath her as she began to kiss her way down my body, taking time to pay my breasts proper attention with her mouth. 

A sudden thought occurred to me. “No stone dildo this time?” 

“It’s not actually necessary for this, just traditional for the May Day ritual. Did you want me to bring one anyway,” she teased.

“Bit late for that,” I laughed. In spite of the rising sounds of pleasure around us, I was feeling better. The shadows hid a lot and no one was looking, everyone was pretty much intent on their own lover. “I wouldn’t mind if you remind me just how good you are with your mouth.”

“Of course.”

She kissed lower and I parted my legs for her. She spread my labia with her fingers and found my clit with her talented tongue, soon enough she had me on edge. She took her time, pressing on my clit with the flat of her tongue instead of the tip in a way that she knew wasn’t quite hard enough. She traced one side of it and then the other until I was nearly incoherent. 

When my moans grew desperate she at last relented, making short hard licks and then finally sucking hard. I came with a desperate cry, clutching at her shoulders. “Yes, yes, babe yes.”

When she raised her head, her eyes reflected back the flickering firelight like two golden orbs. 

“Well met little mother,” 

I had met the island spirit before and yet to see those strange eyes back at me through my wife’s beloved face were still deeply unsettling. 

She did not seem troubled by my hesitation and instead stretched out beside me on the blanket, reaching to caress my face. “You are as lovely as when I last saw you.

I took the compliment, “Thank you.”

She smiled, a half turning of her lip that wasn’t how Ash ever smiled at all. There was something far too knowing about it. 

“You bore a fine child from our last coupling. I have seen her walking on these blessed shores. She has your courage and your wife’s kindness.

“She does.” I felt a bit odd talking about my daughter at such a moment.

She brushed a lock of my hair behind my ear. “Shall I quicken another daughter in your womb on this sacred eve?”

I’d heard worse come-ons in my time. “Yes.”

Her kiss was different than Ash’s, somehow forcefully without being rough. Her lips were far to warm against my own, her hands hot as the pleasant edge of a fire’s heat against my skin. 

She touched me everywhere, almost reverently, as if learning me again. When her hand dipped between my legs, I was more than ready. She pressed two and then three fingers into my eager body, brushing my clit with my thumb. 

She began slowly, setting a steady rhythm as she curled and moved her fingers within me. Gradually she grew faster, trusting her fingers harder, drawing keening, desperate sounds from me. 

Very quickly felt my orgasm coil and release remarkable quickly. I clutched at the blanket and cried out my pleasure without any shame. She kept fucking me, harder and faster.

There was something almost electric about her touch. It didn’t hurt but there was a strange intensity to it, almost like a Hitachi felt, intense and wonderful while you wanted it but likely to very quickly become too much. 

A second orgasm washed over me and then another at its heals. As that one crested I gasped. “Enough, please enough.” 

I slumped onto the blanket, sated and exhausted. When I opened my eyes again, she was still watching me with those strange animal-like ones. A sudden, intense need filled me. I reached for her, kissing those too hot lips hungrily. 

“I want you.”

“Take what you will then little mortal.”

I urged her to lie back and kissed down to the apex of her legs. I’d gone down on Ash so many times in our lives it shouldn’t have been any different at that moment and yet it was. Ash was normally so very vocal and yet the woman beneath me made little more than a soft moan of pleasure as I brought my lips to her sex. 

I drew the tip over my tongue over her clit in solid quick licks, harder than Ash usually liked. That earned me more positive sounds. When I pressed my fingers into her slick body she murmured her approval. 

I worked her to orgasm, inside and out, curling my fingers in quick solid motions and alternating between licking and sucking on her clit. She came with a very soft gasp, her body clenching on the fingers inside of her. I slowed my motions and eased my fingers from inside of her, moving back up to lie beside her. 

Her eyes drifted shut and when they opened again Ash’s human eyes looked back at me, as unreflective as my own. I drew her into my arms and held her. We fell asleep curled up in the soft blanket upon the dry grass of autumn. 

Three days later, we were on a boat heading back to the mainland. I had Eva in my lap so that she would not keep jumping up and standing at the boat’s stern. She had a new doll clutched in her arms, a gift from her Nana. It was of a little girl dressed in one of the islands traditional white mayday clothes, embroidery and all. She kept talking about wanting to come back for the other festivals.

I did not particularly appreciate the old woman filling my daughter with hopes that might not come to pass. It had been hard enough for both Ash and me to get the vacation time we needed to come for Samhain and we were already committed to visiting my father in the united states over Christmas. 

If we came for the Mayday festival, I would likely be six months pregnant and I wasn’t sure how I’d feel being on a boat like that. Seeing the way that Eva watched the Island fall away in the boat's wake with undisguised longing, just as her mother did, made me realize that I could not keep them away from it for too long. I had promised the selkies to bring her back every two years and I always kept my word. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked this story you should check out my website catherineyoungbooks.com. It's free and I've got an ongoing story 'Love and Duty' that updates about every week or so. It's got a polyamorous princess, an arranged marriage, and all the space opera elements you could ever want.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any thoughts on the story, let me know. Without feedback I have a hard time telling if I've written something that works or is jut really weird.


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